A Sight Unseen
by Potterfan89
Summary: Sequel to 'alone in a corner' i strongly suggest reading that first. This picks up the morning after Jack takes Ianto home. Can Jack really help Ianto heal? Please R


**Disclaimer; **I own nothing… as per usual.  
**A/N;** this is a sequel to 'alone in a corner' I strongly suggest reading that first.

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**A Sight Unseen**

Ianto's head was full of clouds and his mouth tasted of stale scotch, he groaned and covered his head with a pillow, trying to will himself back to sleep. Much to his disappointment his waking mind started to take over in full force, as this was happening, the events of the night before started to reply before his eyes.

"Fuck." He grumbled into his pillow, now he wanted to go to work even less than he had been. He let his arm fall onto the pillow next to him, here his hand came into contact with… paper. Taking the pillow away from his face, Ianto blinked away the sleep in his eyes and looked at the piece of paper. It was a letter.

_Ianto,_

_Before I go on, I just want you to not freak out when you see the time. I turned your alarm off before I left. I want you to take the day off and revitalise yourself, so sleep, drink water and coffee and what ever else it is you do. I'll tell the team that you're at some meeting with UNIT they shouldn't ask too many questions. _

_I will have to get a taxi back to the… charming establishment that you that you were at. In all of the excitement I may have forgotten that I drove there to begin with. So I have to pick up the SUV._

_I am going to come back over tonight after I send everyone else home, I'll bring pizza. We can sit down and talk or watch TV or even stare blankly at the wall and see which one of us will cross the threshold into insanity first. It's completely up to you with what we do, I just really don't want you to continue drinking yourself to death._

_If you need anything, call me._

_Jack xx_

_P.S. I promise that Gwen and Owen won't go anywhere near you coffee machine, we'll get starbucks._

Ianto closed his eyes again and sighed. He had tried for so long to hate Jack, even before he killed her, but he never did succeed in doing so. Every time he came painfully close to doing so the American would do something utterly amazing, making hating him impossible.

"Wait… what?" Ianto said to himself. "What the bloody hell did he mean by 'don't freak out by the time'?" he turned his head to see that it was in fact eleven in the morning. He couldn't remember the last time he slept this late, but he was fairly sure he was a teenager.

Ianto slowly got out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom to shower and brush his teeth a few times, starting his morning ritual six and a half hours later than he normally would have.

After brushing his teeth four times, a twenty minute shower and three strong black coffees, Ianto sat on his sofa trying to figure out what he was going to do now. He knew that he had to do something, because when he did nothing he'd think about her… and it hurt too much to do that. He walked over to his computer thinking that he'd kill a few minutes by checking his emails. Four hours later he had done a full virus scan, cleared out his hard drive, organised his folders and cleaned in between the keys on his keyboard.

But it wasn't enough, he still ended up thinking about her. He had no real distractions while he was at home, no way to distract himself from the pain that kept building, he couldn't escape the memories of everything to distract him from the rats running around in his stomach.

At seven o'clock Ianto finished cleaning the drain in his bathtub when a knock sounded on his door. Ianto opened it and revealed Captain Jack Harkness. "Jack."

"Hello Mister Jones."

"You know you didn't have to come over."

"Of course I did, I couldn't possibly eat two pizzas to myself. Well I could but I would much rather eat them with you."

Ianto led Jack into his sitting room and he went and got two plates and two bottles of water. They ate in silence, Ianto merely picked at his. When Jack was full and all of Ianto's topping were rearranged they sat back and an awkward silence engulfed the both.

"So I guess we're going to take the slow route to insanity then?"

"What exactly were you expecting to happen here tonight? What do you want? Do you want me to cry on your shoulder and tell you how much I miss and that I won't be able to live my life without her?"

"I'm not expecting anything Ianto, I just don't want you falling any further into the black pit that you dug yourself."

"Why? I'm not letting this affect my job. I go Ianto work everyday with a clean pressed suit, I greet everyone with a smile and I do what you all ask me to do and more."

Jack stayed silent and waited patiently for Ianto to continue speaking again. This was Ianto's journey and Jack was here a guide, a gentle hand along the way. Ianto would do most of the work himself.

"Owen can't even look in my general direction anymore, he doesn't make it obvious but I can tell. But I really can't blame him though, if I was in his position I don't know what I'd do.

"Gwen… she looks at me but not the way see did, but with sad eyes, with betrayed eyes, with pity filled eyes.

"Toshiko tries to treat me better now, I know she means well by trying to make me feel included, but I know she just feels guilty.

"And then there's you Jack, you see me completely different. Before it happened, you saw right through me, sure you flirted shamelessly with me, but you never saw who I really was. When you look at me I know you don't see the 'yes sir' 'no sir' butler, no you're trying to figure out what else I'm hiding from you.

"The thing is Jack, I do miss her and I honestly don't think that I can continue living without her. But I don't want to cry on your shoulder. I am working through this my way. I go to work and when I'm not working I'm at a pub, if I don't do that my thoughts stray to her and I just hurt." At some point during his speech Ianto stared crying.

"Ianto, can I ask you something?" Jack said from beside the Welshman.

"I have a feeling that you are going to anyway."

"Why?"

"Why what? Why did I do it? I actually thought that was fairly obvious."

"No, I know why you did it. I want to know why you came back. I told you to take a week to mourn her, take that time to cool down a bit. But you didn't take it, why?"

"I came home. When I walked through that door I realised that you were completely right, she died long before that night. I guess I lost so many friends that day, I just wanted to believe she was still human, but now I know she wasn't.

"But what about you, why didn't you Retcon me? I was positive that you wouldn't do it. I thought it even more so last night."

Jack sighed and lent back in the chair. "Because you are right, I do you differently to what I did, but not for the reasons you think. You fought for her, even when you thought that she was gone, you still kept fighting."

"I think… I think I need a coffee." Ianto stood up.

"I'll second that motion."

When Ianto returned with two steaming mugs they drank in silence, both were going over what the other had said.

"Jack?" Ianto's mug was empty but he kept it cradled in his hands.

"Yeah?"

"Things aren't ever going to be the way they were, are they?"

"No," Jack answered honestly. "I'm sorry Ianto, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. You can take this and grow from it. But you don't have to do this by yourself, I want to help you and I will. If you let me, I can help you heal."

"I don't think I have much choice in the matter."

Jack laughed lightly. "It's true, no matter how hard you push me too, I won't let you fall. You can move past this."

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**What did you think??**


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